


Penumbra

by Menoetius



Series: Ubi Caritas [3]
Category: Silent Witness (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Stupidity, Canon-Typical Violence, Episode Remix, Established Relationship, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-24
Updated: 2019-09-24
Packaged: 2020-10-27 17:43:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20764376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Menoetius/pseuds/Menoetius
Summary: "I've dedicated my life to finding answers to questions about death. It is literally my job to be able to describe what happens if one of them gets in the way of one of his bullets, and I am tryingsohard not to think about it."A remix of Shadows (Series 13). Harry and Nikki are trapped on campus with an active shooter and his victims.This is a love story.





	Penumbra

**Author's Note:**

> Shadows is hands down the best episode of Silent Witness ever written. I've always wanted to know what would have happened if Harry and Leo had been the established couple during that episode, rather than Leo and Janet. This is my answer. In that sense, this is an AU. In truth, it's a remix of the canon. The penumbra lives at the edges of the shadow.
> 
> In my timeline, this takes place in the universe of _Ubi Caritas et Amor_, about 18 months later. It isn't necessary to read that to make sense of this.

**Wednesday 20th October 2010**

**1:50PM**

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no."

Leo Dalton's face went white as he watched the two figures come into view on the security camera that was being fed into the Dean's office. "What are you two doing there?" he whispered. "Get out!"

In the main building of the London School of Science and Engineering, there was an active shooter.

And in the main building of the LSEE, there were Harry Cunningham and Nikki Alexander.

He snatched for his mobile phone, hit the first number on his speed dial, hung up on the recorded voice telling him that the mobile network was unavailable.

On the landline speakerphone, a remote voice informed them that Tactical Command had arrived at the university.

The figures disappeared out of the sightline of the camera.

On the ground, Leo could see the body of DC Andy Saitch, left alone in the corridor, still and silent.

* 

"Dr Mears, University Control?"

"Yes," said Jennifer Mears, standing beside Leo, both of them more than a little discombobulated. "This is Professor Dalton, he's assisting me with the University response."

"I'm Karen Somerville, Tactical Commander." The tall, curly-headed police officer shook their hands. "The internal emergency plan seems to be working well. Are your full response teams in place?"

"Not yet. To be honest, we were caught a bit on the hop."

"Do you know how many are inside?"

Leo replied, "We've got full lists of all the students and faculty who are supposed to be in the building, but – "

" – but we've got no idea how many are actually here, especially the students," said Jennifer. 

"That's normal," said Commander Somerville. She checked her watch. "It's five to two, most of them are probably still in bed."

A male officer appeared from around one of the numerous police vans. "All set for you, ma'am."

Commander Somerville touched the Dean reassuringly on the shoulder. "It's okay to panic, Dr Mears, just as long as you do so according to procedure."

Leo was aware that he was panicking not remotely according to procedure, his brain still in that corridor with Harry and Nikki, answering questions on automatic. He followed the police and the Dean into the van.

"Commander Somerville," he said, an edge in his voice. "My pa – " He corrected course. "Two of my colleagues are still inside the main building. Harry Cunningham and Nikki Alexander."

* * *

**Wednesday 20th October 2010**

**11:03AM**

**2 Hours Earlier**

Harry wandered through the lab, leafing through a sheaf of notes, heading towards the seminar room, hoping that Charlie would have managed to make something of the media chip he had found. He almost walked straight into Leo, coming out of his office.

Harry blinked at him. "I thought you were taking the morning off."

"Jennifer called me in," he said. "For the same reason you didn't make it home this morning, I'm guessing."

"I'm sorry – "

Leo shook his head. "It wasn't a complaint. Jason Renfrew?"

"It's an awful business," said Harry. "Imagine, being nineteen and thinking that the only way out is death."

There was no response to be made to that that wasn't inadequate, and they let it sit between them.

"There had been reports made that he was being bullied," said Leo finally. "Charlie mentioned some kind of chip or SIM card on his body?"

"Yeah." Harry held the door open. "I'm just hoping it's not been so damaged by his gastric acid that there's nothing to see. Detective Constable Saich." He tilted his head towards Leo, who shook hands with the police officer. "Professor Dalton, head of the Pathology Department."

"Good to meet you," said Leo. "You're the SIO?"

"Not officially," said Andy Saich. "But once my boss heard 'suicide'…"

Leo held up a hand. "Understood," he said.

Harry leaned against the desk. "I'm going down to the Percival Building after we're done here," he said to Leo. "Stanley should hear it from one of us."

"Good," said Leo. "He'll appreciate that."

"Who's Stanley?" asked Nikki.

"Dr Jacobs," said Harry. "Life Sciences. He would have been Jason's head of department."

In front of them, the smartboard flickered into life and filled with thumbnails.

"So this was on the memory card from his phone?" Nikki said.

"Yeah."

"Some of the image files have been corrupted," said Andy, starting to look through the files. A photograph of a young black woman filled the screen. "Anyone know who she is?"

"No." Harry glanced down at the other visible photographs. "These were all taken on campus, though."

"And they don't look like they were taken on a phone," Nikki observed.

Andy looked more closely. "No, you're right. They were just stored on here."

"What are those numbers?" Harry asked. "Are they just file names?"

"Could be. Who are they?"

"That's Matthew Frisk. He's a second year."

Startled, they turned around to face the Dean. Jennifer Mears had entered the room almost silently.

"Isn't he one of the students who Jason accused?" Leo asked her.

"They were all taken from the same place," said Nikki, who had turned back to the screen and was studying it.

Andy nodded. "And from a height."

"He was found on the roof, wasn't he?" said Leo.

"Do you mind if I take another look up there, Dr Mears?" he asked. "Professor, would you mind tagging along?"

"Actually," Harry said. "Andy, if I could borrow the Professor for a couple of minutes first. Just something in the lab I need to get his opinion on before I leave. Jennifer?"

The Dean acquiesced with a shrug and a wave of her hand.

Harry nodded his thanks, and Leo followed him out of the room, down the short corridor, and back into the lab. "Is it something else you found on Jason's body?" he asked.

"No."

"And since when do you call me 'the Professor'?" 

"Oh, my God, shut up," Harry said, and pulled him between the rows of bookshelves that lined the back of the lab, leaned in, and kissed him hard. Leo laughed and then grinned into the kiss, one hand coming up to touch Harry's stubble, the other settling on Harry's hip. Harry's tongue flicked past his bottom lip and one of them made a noise, louder and longer than was probably professional.

Their mouths separated. Their foreheads still touching, Leo's thumb stroking absently along the bare skin of Harry's waist under his untucked shirt. Harry shivered.

"I call you the Professor when I don't want Doogie Howser the Detective to know that I'm delaying his investigation so I can give you a snog in private," he said.

Leo was still grinning. "And that was what you wanted my opinion on?"

"That was an apology," said Harry. His voice had turned to gravel. "I know it wasn't a complaint, but I'm still sorry. We had unfinished business to take care of this morning."

"Tonight," promised Leo. "You're going home after you see Stanley, right?"

"Yeah." He stifled a yawn. "I don't think I can stay awake much longer, and there's nothing more I can do with Jason until the tox comes back."

Leo kissed him again, soft and slow.

"You know, we could do it right here," Harry said. "We could just go into your office, lock the door for two minutes."

"While the Dean and the Metropolitan Police wait on me next door?" he asked. "I'd like this to be at least decently romantic."

Harry tried to snort, but it was stymied a little bit by the way he was looking at Leo, soft and giddy. Leo separated them, straightening Harry's already-rumpled shirt as best he could, dropping a last kiss to the corner of Harry's mouth.

Harry returned it. "You'll wake me up when you get home?" he asked.

* * *

**Tuesday 19th October 2010**

**11:48PM**

Nikki found Harry in Leo's office. The distant thud of bass drifted through the open window, the campus clubs and bars just getting started for a busy night. A reminder of a different life.

Harry grinned and vocalised the beat, making a rhythmic movement with his shoulders.

She laughed at him.

"I was nineteen, once," he protested.

"So was I," she said. "It was awful."

"If you met your nineteen-year-old self now, do you think they'd shake you politely by the hand or punch you unexpectedly in the face?"

"In my case, probably both," said Nikki. "C'mon. We've got six hours and counting."

"Does it matter?" asked Harry, still grinning. "Does it matter if we get this paper into the New England Journal of Medicine?"

"Well, it matters to me," said Nikki. She came back into the office and looked at him. "What's the matter with you?"

"Nothing," said Harry, surprised. "I'm – happy, I suppose."

"You're practically giddy," she observed.

He laughed. "Leo found an old photo in one of my books the other day, showed it to me. There were young people, on a beach, drinking, having fun. It took me a minute to realise one of them was me. I don't think my nineteen-year-old self would recognise me."

"Because you're old and boring, or because you're old and boring and happy?" she asked, astutely, and smiled at his outraged expression. "Come on," she said, laughing. "Let's go and get a proper coffee."

* * *

**Wednesday 20th October 2010**

**2:44PM**

In a blessedly empty hallway outside the executive offices, Leo leaned his head back against the wall.

He wouldn’t survive this again.

He had barely survived it the first time. In truth, had survived it the first time only because his best friends had dragged him kicking and screaming back to life.

And.

Well.

On instinct, he shoved his right hand into his pocket and grasped for the thin circle of metal he had been keeping there. A totem. The edges cut into the palm of his hand.

The memories were coming on him in flashes.

Harry and Nikki, pressed close and silent by his sides at his wife's funeral.

Harry and Nikki, breathless, chasing a hockey ball around the lab.

Harry, bent over a microscope and a laptop, intent and focused and oblivious to everything around him.

Harry, on the witness stand, self-righteous and right, demolishing a defence barrister.

Harry and Cassie, huddled together at the bar in the student union. His protégé teaching his ten-year-old daughter about cadavers over glasses of Coke.

Harry, and Harry's fierce blazing eyes, and Harry's mouth, kissing him for the first time.

Harry, laughing, letting himself be tugged close and waltzed around the living room in his socks, bluegrass on the stereo and his hips under Leo's hands.

Harry, saying _yes_.

He was dimly aware that this was what a panic attack must feel like.

"_Leo_," said a sharp voice.

He jumped.

Jennifer Mears was standing in front of him.

"I'm fine." He forced the words out through a mouth that suddenly felt like the tundra: "I'll come back inside. I just needed a minute."

All the sharpness was gone when she said, "Oh, Leo. You don't look all right."

"I'm just – " He waved his right hand and let her fill in the blank with whatever she wanted.

_Lost._

_Worried_.

_Panicking_.

_Spiralling._

_Grieving._

"Harry and Nikki will be fine," she said.

"Harry and Nikki are trapped in a building with an active shooter who has already killed half a dozen of our students, a member of your staff, and a police officer," snapped Leo. "So you'll forgive my reminding you that you have no possible way of knowing that."

She was silent.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I know you don't – I know I'm not the only one having a bad day, and I know you mean well. But they're my family and I can't – " He stopped, and took a breath. "I've dedicated my life to finding answers to questions about death. It is literally my job to be able to describe what happens if one of them gets in the way of one of his bullets, and I'm trying, I am trying _so _hard not to think about it, but he's shooting people, and Nikki and --and Ha – Har – " His voice broke against Harry's name. He choked out: "They're _my _people. Jesus bloody Christ, Jennifer, how can you ask me to believe that _any _of this is going to be fine?"

Jennifer laid a hand on his shoulder, as gentle as if he were a particularly skittish horse. "Let's go back inside, Leo. Let's get them out."

He straightened up with a visible effort of will.

Nodded, jerky.

At the open doorway back into her office, he paused, and drew his hand out of his pocket. His fingers fumbling, he pushed the ring they had been clenched around onto the fourth finger of his left hand.

* * *

**Wednesday 20th October 2010**

**6:35AM**

"Which of you is least knackered?" asked Charlie. 

Harry groaned internally. He and Nikki had been awake all night. He had been so looking forward to getting that breakfast, and to heading home, to crawling into bed, hoping Leo might even still be there.

Charlie looked apologetic as she handed him a slip of paper.

He snagged Nikki's elbow. "You're coming with me," he said flatly. "I've had seven cups of coffee, and you're my designated thermometer holder."

"You are far too awake," she said, as they changed direction.

"Caffeine," he told her. "Anyway, it's mostly on the outside. Inside, I'm dreaming of my bed. I've been dreaming of my bed now for several hours."

She laughed. "I wasn't joking, you know."

Harry raised a questioning eyebrow.

"You're giddy. You have been all night."

"I told you," he said. "I'm happy."

"Why?"

"What, I'm not allowed to be happy?"

Nikki shrugged. "You're _allowed_. You just usually _aren't_. Or, at least, if you are, you keep it carefully hidden under several layers of grump and sarcasm."

Harry looked at her. He paused, his hand on the door into the Percival Building. "Okay. Really?"

She nodded, eagerly.

"The night before last. Leo asked me to marry him."

* * *

**Monday 18th October 2010**

**9PM**

They were walking home.

Leo had lured Harry away from his desk with sweet talk of dinner and an early night. Harry hadn't needed to be lured very hard.

They had left their cars and taken the Tube from South Kensington. They'd eaten at a fish restaurant in Wapping where Leo had made actual reservations, to Harry's mild surprise. They had talked of family and work and weekend plans, and had flirted over coffee and dessert. Harry had spent his meal looking at Leo, at the crinkles around his eyes and the shape of his mouth and the slope of his shoulders in his nicer-than-usual suit. He had been aware that Leo was looking back, an awareness that burned warm inside his chest.

Afterwards, as they had left, Harry looping his scarf around his neck, Leo had tilted his head towards the river.

"Walk?" 

Harry had agreed.

The first cold bite of winter was in the air, dry and crisp. The lights of London shone down on the Thames. Their shoulders touched as they walked. Their fingers tangled together from time to time.

As they turned to cross Tower Bridge before doubling back along the north bank of the river towards home, Leo had stumbled into a tourist, sneaking glances at Harry rather than watching where he was going. Harry had broken off mid-sentence to laugh at him.

"What's so interesting about my face tonight, anyway?" Harry had asked.

"Nothing," said Leo. "I just really love you."

They had moved towards the side of the bridge, out of the foot traffic, the Thames beneath them. At that, Harry had kissed him, eyes open, soft and quick.

"Do you remember our second night together?" Leo asked.

"Of course."

Harry thought he was unlikely ever to forget that night. Their first night together had been cut short by work, and they had spent a few days passing one another at work and trying to find out exactly what they wanted from each other in conversations that by necessity were taking place in snatched moments between murders. The second time they spent the night together had led to the first time they spent the morning together.

And then Leo had never really left.

A grin had spread across Harry's face as he remembered that morning, the incompatibility of trying to get out of the door for work and not quite being able to keep their hands off each other. The way he hadn't been able to stop smiling.

"D'you remember – " Leo had never been a man whose voice had shaken. And yet. "D'you remember – that night, there was a question I didn’t ask."

Harry's breath had caught in his throat.

"_Oh_."

And then Leo had been kneeling on the ground in his good suit in the middle of Tower Bridge on a Monday night, and Harry's jaw had dropped open.

And _of course _he remembered the question that Leo hadn’t asked.

Remembered their hands twined together and Leo's thumb rubbing over his finger and promising that he wasn’t asking –- wasn't asking _yet_.

And remembered him saying, muffled into Harry's shoulder, _"Someday?"_

"Well. This is me. Asking."

Harry was vaguely aware of Leo taking one of his hands, of trying not to blurt out an answer while Leo was still talking, and then, rapidly, of the colour draining from Leo's face.

"_Shit_."

"What?" Harry had tried to wrench himself back down to earth.

"The ring."

"There's a ring?"

"I wasn't raised in a barn," Leo had said, looking mildly offended. "Yes, there's a ring. There's a ring. In a box. In the top right-hand drawer of my desk. At work."

Harry hadn't been able to help it, he'd snickered, and then collapsed, and then had tugged on the lapels of Leo's coat. "Oh, my God, get _up _here, you lunatic," he had gasped through his laughter, and as soon as Leo was within reach had leaned down and kissed the mortification off his face. 

"You have to ask me," Harry had mumbled against his mouth.

"Oh. Harry." Leo had pulled back a little, and their eyes had met, bright and damp. "Harry Cunningham," he said. "Will you marry me?"

* * *

**Wednesday 20th October 2010**

**4:08PM**

"Leo." Jennifer's voice was sharp, and he swung around to look at the security camera feed.

Harry, walking swiftly down a corridor, looking around carefully, a First Aid box in his hand.

Alive.

Leo's heart thundered inside his head.

Into the speakerphone on Jennifer's desk, he said, "Commander Somerville. Corridor L, Camera 17. It's my colleague, Harry Cunningham."

*

Leo's watch said it had been less than three quarters of an hour before the camera feed yielded further information. It felt like lifetimes.

Nikki, running alongside paramedics. 

He dumped the pile of papers he'd had in his hand, fled the office, ran around the perimeter of campus, heading for where they had all seen her exiting the building.

If she had left, where the _hell_ was Harry?

"Nikki!" he shouted. "Are you all right?"

"Where's Harry?" she asked.

He looked at her. "I don't know," he admitted. "Are you sure you're not hurt?"

"I shouldn't have let him leave."

As she tried to shake off the officer on her tail, a crackly voice broke in through his radio.

_"Shooter down. Paramedics in attendance."_

Leo and Nikki turned back, their attention successfully captured.

_"Can he be moved?" _Karen Somerville's voice.

_"I'll check. We've got a KAD in attendance."_

"What's a KAD?" asked Leo, bewildered. 

"A know-it-all doctor," their CO-15 shadow told them. "Sorry."

* * *

**Wednesday 20th October 2010**

**6:15PM**

Harry's hand closed around his mobile phone in his pocket.

He looked back at Scott Weston, on the floor of the bathroom, at the bullet hole in his face.

There was something that wasn't adding up.

He pulled it out, pressed speed dial, prayed that there was signal. It rang. He breathed out. Immediately, before the end of the first ring, there was a click.

"Leo, it's me."

And a beloved voice in his ear. _"Harry, where the hell are you?"_

"Listen, Leo."

_"What is it?"_

"Is it possible this isn't the guy?"

_"Why shouldn't it be?"_

"I don't know, I – " Harry strode back towards Scott. Hesitated. No. He wasn't wrong about this. "This doesn't seem self-inflicted to me."

_"There's a gun missing."_

Harry's head went up. "Is there?"

_"Well, they're assuming he tossed it."_

He looked around the bathroom. His eyes caught on bullet holes in the far toilet cubicle. A tight grouping of three. "Is it an automatic?"

_"They don't know," _said Leo. _"It could be."_

"There's a grouping on the toilet wall consistent with gunfire from an automatic," Harry told him. "What did you find on the bodies?"

_"Same."_

"Scott Weston didn't shoot himself. I'm certain of it. The forensics are telling us a different story."

Leo exhaled sharply into his ear. _"So there's another shooter."_

"And the police have no idea where he is," said Harry.

_"Harry, you have to get out of there."_

"I can't," he said. "Leo, you know I can't."

_"You – "_

"I'll be careful."

_"Harry – I – " _Leo's voice choked off, tight.

"I know," said Harry. "I do, too."

Reluctantly, he thumbed the call off and slid the phone back into his pocket, and settled back down onto the floor. The armed response officer eyed him.

"Your boss?" he asked.

"My partner," said Harry. "I'd quite like to get us all out of here and get to him before he has a stroke. This wasn't quite the day we had planned," he said, ruefully.

"Sorry, Doc."

He huffed a laugh. "It's hardly your fault." He eyed him, consideringly, and held out a hand. "Harry," he said.

"Ben."

At his side, another hand grasped for his. Harry closed his latex-covered fingers around Scott's. "Stay with me," he whispered.

"I'm not going to leave you."

* * *

**Thursday 20th October 2010**

**6:25PM**

Jennifer found Leo out in the hallway again.

He opened his eyes and looked at her. "I'm all right," he said.

"You're worried about Harry."

"He phoned me," said Leo. "A few minutes ago."

"Karen says he's doing a great job," she said, bracingly.

"He's the best there is," Leo agreed. "He's the one who figured it out."

"You ought to be proud of him."

Leo spun the ring on his finger. "I am, Jennifer. But, right now, I just want him here." 

* * *

**Thursday 20th October 2010**

**6:37PM**

"His pupils are fixed and dilated, and he's bradycardic," said Harry, still on the floor of the bathroom. "He's bleeding inside his skull," he said. "If I'm right and the pressure isn't relieved, then – " He pulled his phone out again and flicked through his contact list.

"You're phoning your partner again?" asked Ben, incredulously.

"No," he said, shortly. The confused voice of one of his oldest friends came down the phone. "George?" he said, not bothering with pleasantries. "Hi, it's Harry Cunningham. I'm in a bit of a situation. I've got a guy in front of me with a gunshot wound to the face. I'm thinking maybe extradural haematoma or subdural haematoma, and there's a possible depressed fracture to the skull, and the pupil is fixed, and I'm worried now that – "

It was to George's credit that he didn't ask questions, but started to give instructions.

Harry fished for a pen.

_"And then you'll need to do a burr hole," _said the voice down the phone.

Harry groaned out loud.

"I was afraid you were going to say that. I should maybe just wait until – okay, okay, tell me again," he said, starting to write on his glove.

* 

"Shit. Shit. Shit."

"You were wrong?" asked Ben. "You were right?"

"A fragment of the skull has punctured the middle meningeal artery, causing a haematoma to form behind the depressed fracture. So." Harry scrabbled in the med kit. "Unless I can release the blood clot, the pressure on his brain's going to kill him. So, have you got anything?"

Ben gaped at him. "For what?"

"For making a hole in his skull," said Harry. "Yeah. Really. Anything?" A second later, a Swiss Army knife was slapped into his hand. He directed Ben away from the door. "I want you to hold his head very firmly and very carefully, because I don't want his brain on my shoe, okay?"

He took a slow, deliberate breath, and studied the contours of Scott's skull. The zygoma. The tragus. The pinna. He bit his lip, checked the notes on his glove, flipped the corkscrew attachment from the knife, and very, very nervously started to make a hole in the temporalis fascia.

He felt a give in the bone and pulled out, heart in his mouth.

He took the blunt plastic tweezers he had found in the med kit and bent down, pulling out the lip of the temporal bone. A clot came with it.

"Is he going to make it?" asked Ben.

Harry exhaled. "I don't know."

* 

He had handed over to the paramedics.

Scott was alive. Unconscious, still. But alive.

Harry's hands wouldn't stop shaking.

As soon as the ambulance had disappeared out of the campus gates, he took off, legs striding towards the executive building.

Leo was nowhere to be seen.

"Jennifer," he said, heedless of the office full of people. "D'you know where Leo is?" 

* * *

**Tuesday 19th October 2010**

**8:15PM**

"You heading home?" Harry asked, spinning around on his desk chair.

Leo was leaning in the doorway, wearing his coat, carrying his car keys. His eyes were crinkled, watching Harry. "I'm not expecting you tonight, I take it," he said.

"A deadline," said Harry, holding up one hand. And, holding up the other: "An impressively blank piece of paper."

"You should take tomorrow off."

"I'll have to check with my boss."

"Cheek," said Leo, fondly. "In fact, your boss thought he might take the morning, too. I've got a meeting in the afternoon and I'm on call tomorrow night, but if you make it out of here before lunchtime…" He trailed off.

Harry stood up and crossed the lab, pressing a kiss to Leo's cheek. "The thing's due at six in the morning," he said. "It's a date." 

* * *

**Wednesday 20th October 2010**

**8:15PM**

"Oh, Jesus."

As he walked towards the light glowing from the ceiling, it turned from green to red, and all of a sudden, in a flash, Harry understood.

He was in the heart of the Percival Building.

There was no time to get back out.

He was going to die.

He took his phone out of his pocket again, and pressed speed dial.

_"Harry."_

"There's a bomb," said Harry.

_"What?" _He heard the faint sound of Leo's footsteps, starting to run. _"Where? Harry, where the hell are you?"_

"It's in the bathroom." He felt preternaturally calm. "In the ceiling vents."

_"Harry, get out of there, right now."_

"Leo."

_"This is no longer a discussion."_

" I don't know how long before it blows, but not long, and I don’t think I've got time to get out. Leo. Listen."

_"Harry."_

"I love you," Harry said.

_"No."_

"I needed to tell you. If we never – if I never – if this is it, then I need that to be the last thing I ever said to you. I've loved you forever. And – God, Leo, I owe you everything. _Everything_."

A noise reached his ears. A sob. _"Harry, don't you dare say goodbye to me."_

Harry's eyes were still on the red light. "Just – please, Leo, tell me that you love me too."

_"Get the hell out here and I'll tell you in person," _snapped Leo.

"Leo – "

_"Of course I do. Now, fucking run, Harry, and don't you fucking dare – "_

The phone cut out.

* * *

**Four Years Earlier**

_Leo had turned his lamps on, the London evening dark beyond his windows. The end of a case and a plan to go out to dinner together had turned into a night in his office and demolishing the bottle of wine he kept in his desk drawer._

_A few minutes earlier, Nikki had declared herself turned into a pumpkin, set her wine on Leo's desk, and kissed them each on the cheek before she vanished out of the door with a smile, closing it behind her. _

_Harry was on the sofa. His long legs were stretched out in front of him, and his head was tipped back. He cradled a mostly empty wineglass in his hand._

_Leo held up the bottle of wine. _ _Harry took it._ _Their fingers brushed._

_Harry smiled at him._

_Leo's stomach flipped, and his mouth went dry._

_Oh._

_So._

_That was what this was._

_He had fallen in love with this man._

_With Harry, who was his best friend, and who loved him, of that, Leo had no doubt, but who would never want him back. _

_So he would have his best friend, and he would love him, and he would spend the rest of his life not saying anything, because having a best friend like Harry was worth **everything**_.

_Harry stretched out the hand with his wine in it, and clinked his glass against Leo's._

_Leo's heart stuttered._

* * *

**Wednesday 20th October 2010**

**8:35PM**

Leo couldn't have said how much time had passed.

He was sitting on the wall, outside the Dean's office, trying to remember how to breathe. He could hear occasional choked off sobs on his left. Nikki was holding his hand. They had let her out of the Lyell Centre. He couldn't cry. He wanted to scream.

"Professor."

Commander Somerville was standing in front of him.

He supposed he ought to be grateful to her.

He supposed things could have been an awful lot worse.

He just couldn't quite remember how.

"I thought you'd want to know that your colleague has cleared the building."

"Harry wasn't my colleague." Leo's voice cracked. "Not just my colleague." Nikki's hand tightened on his. He looked up at the Commander. "It wasn't a secret, or anything – I mean, the Dean knows, everyone knows, but I didn't – I thought if I made a thing of it, I wouldn't be allowed to stay. And – being sent away, not knowing, that would have been worse."

"I know." She smiled at Leo's surprise. "Professor Dalton, I've been a police officer for 23 years. I recognise a panicking husband when I see one."

He swallowed around the lump in his throat. "I never thought I'd get to be that," he said to his knees. "He said, two days ago, he said he would marry me. And now – " His voice cracked again. "Is he being taken to the Lyell Centre?" he asked. "I can't – and Nikki, you shouldn't – "

"He's in Tac Ops near the Percival Building, being debriefed by Gold Command," said Commander Somerville. "I'm sure he'll be with you soon enough. We'll tell him to find you here."

"What?" asked Nikki.

Leo's head came up. "He's _alive_?" he demanded.

"Well, yes." For the first time all day, she looked nonplussed. "Yes, of course he's alive, Professor Dalton. Why on Earth would he not be alive?"

Leo and Nikki both fumbled their phones out of their pockets. In his hast, Leo's nearly landed screen down on the ground. He saw the notification for no network. There was no signal. That had been why his phone, or Harry's phone, one of their phones, had cut out.

"We need to see him," said Nikki.

"Now," said Leo.

"Oh, my God," she said, comprehension dawning on her face. "He phoned you. He found the bomb. You thought – "

"Commander!" snapped Leo.

"Follow me." As she strode across campus, heading back to the Percival Building, with Leo walking alongside her and Nikki trotting to keep up with them, she explained, in clipped tones: "There are devices. Plural. They didn't detonate when they should have done, and we don't know why, but the Bomb Disposal Unit are on it. CO-15 caught up with your Dr Cunningham as he was exiting the building and evacuated him beyond the predicted blast zone."

Leo barely pretended to be taking any of it in.

Over the sound of the sirens, they heard raised voices.

And as they rounded a corner to the Tac Ops van, there was the back of Harry's head, as he argued with an officer who was trying valiantly to debrief him.

Leo's knees nearly gave out.

"I need to see Professor Dalton," he was shouting. "Officer, I am sorry, I will answer all of your questions, I promise, but I need someone to find me Leo Dalton _right now_, or so help me God – "

"Harry."

He turned.

Their eyes locked.

Harry threw himself at Leo, landing in his arms with something between a grunt and a sob and a laugh. Leo's arms tightened, as he said into Harry's neck, tears hot and damp against his skin, "I thought you were dead."

They hung onto each other, heedless of CO-15, of the Bomb Squad running around them, of Nikki, of anything at all.

Eventually, he drew back. Harry was still gripping his hands. "I love you," said Harry into his ear.

For the rest of his life, Leo thought he would never forget that phone call. He was going to have nightmares about that phone call. It didn't matter. There were words he hadn't been able to say on the phone.

"I love you, too," he said. 

He pulled his hands free, and, with frozen fingers, fumbled Harry's ring off his left hand. 

Harry was staring at him. This was hardly the moment.

"This is hardly the moment," said Leo. "But you already said yes and you nearly died, so, fuck that. I want to be your husband more than anything else in the world."

And awash with the blue light of a major incident, Leo took Harry's hand and pushed a ring onto his finger, and Harry kissed him.

* * *

**Epilogue: Six Months Later**

"You're late," Harry called.

It was one of the first warm days of spring in London.

Leo thrust banknotes through the window of his cab and ran up the steps of the registry office, reaching for Harry's hand as he got to the top step.

"I'm not late," he said, breathless. "I'm just very punctual."

Harry laughed.

Leo held his hand out. Harry worked the plain platinum band that had been on his ring finger for the last six months over his knuckle, and deposited it in Leo's palm. Its mate was in his jacket pocket. Leo hadn't worn a ring since he took off Harry's, the totem that he had worn when he needed to believe that the world wasn't ending, but Harry would put one on him today. 

"They're all here?" asked Leo.

He nodded. "Are you sure you're ready to do this?"

"For the rest of our lives, right?"

Beyond the door, a dozen of their friends and family were waiting for them.

On the steps, Leo kissed him, the edges of Harry's ring digging into his palm. 

_"The place in which we are now met has been duly sanctioned according to the law for the celebration of civil partnerships. Today, you, their family and friends, are gathered here to witness the joining together in civil partnership of Harry Cunningham and Leo Dalton."_

**Author's Note:**

> There are significant pieces of dialogue in this story that are lifted directly from Dudi Appleton and Jim Keeble's script. The bits you recognise all belong to them.
> 
> As a Harry/Leo shipper, I have _so_ many questions about this episode. Like, how dead did Leo kill Harry afterwards for going back into the building? And how do William Gaminara and Tom Ward sound like such a couple when they're having a conversation about ballistics of all things? And why exactly is Harry on first name terms with all the senior faculty but Nikki isn't? (In a deleted scene from this story, Nikki asks how come Harry is so friendly with senior faculty when she barely knows them, and Harry rolls his eyes and says, "Nikki, you remember the part where I live with a member of the senior faculty, don't you?")
> 
> In the canon universe and in the _Ubi Caritas_ universe, Shadows takes place in 2010. Harry and Leo talk in the language of marriage and will continue to do so, but a civil partnership is what they get under the law in England and Wales. Until 2014, anyway. 
> 
> Plainly, there's a year and half's worth of story between _Ubi Caritas_ and _Penumbra_. I may even get round to writing some of it at some point.


End file.
